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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817070">wear it now like a mantle, always there to remind you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereisasong18/pseuds/thereisasong18'>thereisasong18</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>it's a fine romance but it's left me so undone [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Rise of Kyoshi, Avatar: The Shadow of Kyoshi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Character Death, F/F, Gen, I did Chin such a favor, Lots of Angst, Not Canon Compliant, Sort Of, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:42:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,261</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817070</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereisasong18/pseuds/thereisasong18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The last time Rangshi say I love you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kyoshi/Rangi (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>it's a fine romance but it's left me so undone [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003971</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>wear it now like a mantle, always there to remind you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was originally meant to be a chapter 2 to my other fic, the first time they say it, but for some reason I decided it needed much more angst and it got away from me a bit to the point where it didn't seem like a good follow up. </p>
<p>Title from Florence + the Machine, Third Eye.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Rangi was cold. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so chilled. Not through all the winters she had shared with Kyoshi on their island. Not in Agna Q’ela when she brought her mother to be healed by the Water Tribe. Not even on the nightmarish day she had been stabbed by Yun, so many years ago. She’d been so full of fire back then, her inner heat always ensuring she never felt the chill. Her inner flame was fading now. She felt its loss keenly, knowing what it meant. It had been many, many years since she had been the fiery girl who fought tooth and nail to protect those she loved. Many years since she had had to fight. Kyoshi, her brave giant girl, had created an entire island for them to live on, safe from the problems arising from the mainland. The knowledge that Avatar Kyoshi, the cruel and harsh peacekeeper who never seemed to age, ruled Kyoshi Island kept most threats from ever coming close to their shores. Rangi knew the mainland’s view of Kyoshi was less than hospitable, but she had been grateful for it. With the reputation Kyoshi controlled, problems rarely arose, and the world had entered an era where crime and wars were barely heard of. Rangi was glad, of course, that the world was at peace, but at her core, she was most glad that it meant Kyoshi spent the majority of the time on the island with her. But now, she knew that time was drawing to an end.</p>
<p>Kyoshi had fought it, of course. So had Rangi. The technique Kyoshi used to extend her own life was primarily an Earthbending form that Rangi could never have gotten the hang of herself. However, she trusted Kyoshi with her life. Rangi knew Kyoshi would never ever hurt her, and so she allowed Kyoshi to try Earthbending her body in the same way. Her miracle girl had succeeded, rejuvenating her, keeping her younger, making sure their time together lasted as long as humanly possible. But all times came to an end. Rangi had been feeling her inner flame fade for years, but she held on as long and as hard as she could. She had been with Kyoshi so long that she couldn’t bear to imagine a life without her. She couldn’t imagine leaving her. She hadn’t told Kyoshi about her inner flame; she couldn’t bear to. Seeing Kyoshi in pain had always been her greatest weakness, her greatest fear, since far back in the Yokoya days. She would do anything to protect her giant girl. Including fighting, one last time, when a bloodthirsty tyrant finally did cross the ocean from the mainland and threatened their home. Rangi suddenly remembered why she was so cold.</p>
<p>Chin the Conqueror had been easy enough to deal with. Kyoshi hadn’t even needed the full power of the Avatar State. Rangi had watched from the trees as her Avatar had performed an Earthbending feat unparalleled by the greatest of masters to split off their little peninsula. She had watched as Chin fell into the sea, too stubborn to retreat. She had thought that would be the end of it, and Kyoshi had too, and decades had passed since the fateful day. She and Kyoshi had established a full and happy life on their island. They had brought women from all over the Four Nations, benders and non benders alike, training them to be fighters. To protect themselves. The name started as a joke, but it soon stuck fast, and the Kyoshi Warriors helped their Avatar keep order through the land. Rangi had trained them all, and loved them all as well. From their house in the northern part of the island, Rangi and Kyoshi had lived in peace and joy for years. Rangi winced. Until recently.</p>
<p>Unknown to them, Chin had had a son. Only a child when his father challenged the Avatar, the boy had grown up far from Kyoshi’s watchful eyes. He had been fed a constant stream of stories of his father, a brave warrior who had thought to unite the Earth Kingdom under his rule until the tyrant Avatar Kyoshi murdered him in cold blood. Rangi knew that was a lie, of course, but she had heard that version of events straight from the child’s mouth. That child was grown now, a hardened man, who still believed in his version of his father. They had learned of his existence some time ago. Rangi remembered it well, the day he marched into their village, right up to the house she and Kyoshi shared. He denounced her Avatar to her face and swore he would get revenge, before turning and walking away. Kyoshi had wanted to end him right then and there, but she had let him go, knowing if she killed him in cold blood, she would lose whatever respect she commanded among the people of the mainland. Rangi hadn’t approved. Her years in the Academy had trained her of the dangers posed when letting madmen live, but she trusted her wife. Eventually, they had lost track of the boy, Chun, when more problems arose to be sorted out by the Avatar.</p>
<p>Rangi couldn’t believe how wrong things had gone, and how quickly it had happened. The boy had resurfaced only weeks ago. By the time word reached the island, he was already on the way. He had assembled like minded men, harsh and cold, eager to rid the world of the tyrant Avatar Kyoshi, who ensured that crime was shortlived, if the criminals lived at all. Rangi shuddered. Most of the warrior women she and Kyoshi had trained were gone, spread throughout the nations to help keep the peace. Even Koko was gone, commanding an elite force of Kyoshi warriors to quell a triad uprising in the Earth Kingdom. Rangi felt a brief spasm of pain as she thought of her and Kyoshi’s daughter, at the same time relieved that she had been nowhere near when Chun had arrived. Only a few squadrons of women had remained on the island, and were no match for the small but brutal force that Chun had brought. As soon as she and Kyoshi realized what was happening, they had prepared to fight.</p>
<p>It had been years since Rangi’s last battle. She had told Kyoshi that she felt obligated to stay on the island to train the warriors and to take care of Koko. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Kyoshi the real reason. That she had felt the first pangs of her inner flame fading away. She told herself that if she could just stay away from battles, she could stay alive longer. Stay with Kyoshi. Though it nearly broke her to stay back while Kyoshi went to fight, she knew that the warriors she had trained could keep her giant girl safe. Even better, the reputation Kyoshi commanded had kept major threats at bay for some time. Until now. Rangi cursed herself. They had gotten soft. When Chun arrived on the island, Rangi knew her time away from fighting was over. She ignored the dimming light in her chest. Kyoshi had needed her, and Rangi would be there.</p>
<p>The fight was as brutal as the man leading it. Rangi and Kyoshi fought back to back in the ruins of their village. No matter how many men they brought down, more would always replace them, but Rangi knew Kyoshi wasn’t desperate, not yet. She had more than enough power to take down the entire force, but she wanted Chun. She wanted to make an example. Rangi would have been happy to go along with it if she hadn’t been having so much difficulty keeping up her end of the fight. The extended years of her life were finally catching up to her. After a particularly weak fire blast, Kyoshi finally noticed. She had bent a giant wall of earth around the two of them, granting them a brief reprieve from the fight, ignoring Chun’s scream of rage.</p>
<p>“Rangi? What is it?”</p>
<p>Rangi had winced, knowing she couldn’t keep her secret any longer. “Kyoshi…I’m so sorry.” She moved towards her giant girl, reaching up to touch her face. “I haven’t told you. I couldn’t bear to. We’ve had such a good life. Such a happy life. I guess I just didn’t want to admit it would end.” She watched the panic swell in Kyoshi’s face and braced herself. “My fire is fading, my love.”</p>
<p>Kyoshi staggered back, her strong and powerful figure somehow shrinking in on herself. “What are you talking about? That can’t be. I can’t have failed. I did exactly as Lao Ge showed me, on myself too. How can you say that?”</p>
<p>Rangi smiled sadly. “Firebenders all have an inner fire. You’ve felt mine often enough. Eventually, that fire will go out. It’s been fading for years, Kyoshi. I did everything I could to make it last. It’s not your fault, or mine. It’s the way of life.” Rangi knew it was futile as soon as she saw Kyoshi’s tears.</p>
<p>“No. I won’t allow it. I am the Avatar, Rangi. We’ll figure this out. Just let me take care of Chun, and we’ll figure all this out.” She had sounded desperate, pleading. “Just let me fix this.” Before Rangi could say anything, Kyoshi dropped the earthen wall. The remainder of Chun’s force had been arrayed in front of them, ready and waiting to strike, but they held back as their leader stepped forward.</p>
<p>“Murderer.” His voice seemed calm, but Rangi had heard the note of unstableness below the veneer.</p>
<p>“Enough.” Kyoshi had stepped in front of Rangi, staring down Chun. “I killed your father, yes. His perverted vision of unity hurt more people than it ever would have helped. His misled belief that the world needed a unifier led him to me, and in his arrogance, he thought to challenge me for control of my home. You have followed in his footsteps, and his mistakes. You think to challenge me? To attack my home? You have no idea what you’re dealing with. Who you’re dealing with. Countless men have tried to kill me. Here I stand. Here I will end this.” She moved a step forward, raising her fans.</p>
<p>Chun had laughed, a strange, terrible sound. “Avatar Kyoshi. I’m here so that you realize what you took from me. From the world. I’m here to hold you accountable. You’ve sat and watched as the Earth Kingdom fills itself with corrupted officials. My father knew that it wasn’t sustainable. He tried to fix your mistakes. He could have made us a force to be reckoned with, if you hadn’t killed him in cold blood. So I’m here to return the favor.” Suddenly, he whipped his arm up from his side. Rangi hadn’t seen the blade, and neither had Kyoshi. Rangi had forgotten everything in that moment in her desperate need to leap in front of Kyoshi.</p>
<p>Rangi was cold. The knife had entered her stomach, neatly slicing through her armor. The cold was unfamiliar to her. Rangi realized her fire was nearly out, finally expended in her last effort to protect her world. The cold kept spreading, correlating with the growing pool of blood expanding around where she stood. Rangi swayed, and collapsed. She simply couldn’t hold herself upright anymore. In the back of her mind, she could hear Kyoshi screaming. She pushed herself upright again, only to see her giant girl completely encased in a whirling tornado. She had only seen Kyoshi’s full Avatar State a few times. This was a display unlike any of the others. Kyoshi glowed with the light of a thousand Avatars before her, lifting Chun into the air as the rest of his men scattered for the shore. Rangi watched, unable to move any further, as Kyoshi dropped the man who had stabbed her from hundreds of feet in the air. Chun’s lifeless body hit the ground in front of Rangi, blood spilling from his mouth. Kyoshi landed seconds later, falling to her knees in front of Rangi. “Hold on! Please, Rangi! I just need water. I can fix this!” </p>
<p>Rangi felt the flame inside her burn down to its last sparks. She knew whatever Kyoshi did wouldn’t make a difference. “Kyoshi…you have been my world. My everything. I swore my life to protect you, remember? I swore I’d never fail to protect you again. My flame was dying, Kyoshi. I’m grateful I was able to allow it to finally go out on my own terms.” She reached up one last time, her blood streaking Kyoshi’s face. Kyoshi sobbed, clutching Rangi to her. Rangi gathered herself for one last effort. “Don’t…worry. I will see you again, my love. My flame is going out in this world, but that doesn’t mean it will be out in the next. Always remember, Kyoshi. Always remember how much you mean to me. Always remember…that I love you.” Rangi couldn’t muster anything else. She locked eyes with her giant girl one last time.</p>
<p>“Rangi, no. Please. I love you! Please stay with me!” Her giant girl, her Kyoshi, her face filled with her refusal to believe what was happening, kissed Rangi as hard as she could, forcing everything she felt into her last moment with her Firebender. With her final coherent thought, Rangi felt Kyoshi’s warmth spread through her, one last gift from the love of her life. She let herself slip away into the darkness. Her inner flame had finally been extinguished.</p>
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